The Silicon Review ^Asia

Savji Dholakia is an Indian business tycoon who is founder and chairman of Hari Krishna Exports Pvt. Ltd, a diamond empire that exports polished and finished diamonds to more than 50 countries. Born into a poor agricultural family, Savji toiled in the fields for long hours in order to support his family. He was the second child among four. Dholakia’s life seemed extremely monotonous, shifting between school and farming. However, fate, it seemed had different plans for the 13-year-old Dholakia, when his family’s incomes started dwindling continuously and he was forced to give up school and find a job to support himself and help the family.

At the time Savji and his family belonged to a small farming village called Amreli in the Indian state of Gujarat. Dholakia moved from his village at the tender age of 13 to the city of Surat, already a major hub of industry, trade, and commerce in India. The young boy had a small sliver of fortune as his uncle already had an established business of polishing and selling diamonds, which Savji readily joined. This was the start of a long journey that would see the boy grow from being a polisher of diamonds to become one of the country’s leading diamond merchants.

Working for his uncle, Savji had varying roles in the company. It was more of a small family run unit, rather than an organization with a traditional bureaucratic structure, and all the major decisions were made by the proprietor. It was here that Savji Dholakia observed how the business was run and honed his skills cutting diamonds and polishing them. He worked for his uncle for over 15 years before finally having the confidence to begin his entrepreneurial journey. As with any business, the initial years were a constant struggle, since he had to run the day-to-day operations, meet with clients, establish a network of distributors and also hire and train a competent workforce. As the years passed by, the boy from a small village, now a man in his thirties saw his fortunes grow, achieving the coveted milestone of having a turnover of more than Rs.1 crore( $1,50,000 approximately). Having had a taste of success, there would be no turning back for the spirited entrepreneur.

Savji Dholakia decided to invest all of his profits back into his business, a move which allowed him to capture a dominant share of the diamond market in India. Having spent years building his company and navigating the meandering corridors of big business, Dholakia’sHari Krishna Exports had grown to become a force to be reckoned with, boasting of annual turnovers of over Rs.6000 crore( $900 million approximately). However, the diamond merchant’s claim to fame came not from his business acumen, but from his generosity. As someone who built a business from nothing, Savji understood the value of skilled labor. Under a unique rewards program, Dholakia gave away 1,260 cars, 400 apartments and expensive jewelry to high performing employees.

As a self-made billionaire who was a middle-school dropout from an impoverished family, Savji Dholakia perfectly understands the value of humility, generosity and most of all, hard work.